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The Pfanschmidt ax murders of 1912...
The Pfanschmidt ax murders of 1912...
Item # 718981
October 07, 1912
EVENING TRIBUNE, San Diego, Oct. 7, 1912
* The Pfanschmidt family ax murders
* Payson (Quincy), Adams County, Illinois
The front page has a one column heading: "SON CHARGED WITH SLAYING FAMILY" with subhead. (see images) Surprisingly this issue is in good condition being from the "wood pulp" era. Very hard to find issues that are not totally fragile from this era in paper.
Complete with 16 pages, two small library stamps within the masthead, generally very nice.
background: In 1912, the Pfanschmidt family—Charles (46), Mathilda, their daughter Blanche (15), and boarder Emma Kaempen (21)—were brutally murdered with an ax in their rural Payson, Illinois, home, which was then set ablaze to cover the crime. Discovered on September 29 after neighbors saw smoke, the charred remains revealed a gruesome scene: the women were found upstairs on blood-soaked beds, while Charles’s dismembered body lay in the cellar beside a bloody ax head. Suspicion fell on Ray Pfanschmidt, the couple’s 20-year-old son, due to his financial troubles, inheritance prospects, and evidence like bloodstained clothing and buggy tracks possibly linked to him. Convicted in 1913 for Blanche’s murder, Ray’s death sentence was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1914 due to biased local sentiment, leading to his acquittal in retrials for Blanche’s and Charles’s murders, with Mathilda’s case dismissed. The unsolved case, initially linked to the 1912 Villisca ax murders but later ruled unconnected, left a lasting legal impact by banning bloodhound testimony in Illinois courts.
Category: The 20th Century
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